The Central Operating Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard has sent a new report to the Supreme Court indicating that Álvaro García Ortiz, Attorney General of the State, changed his phone on October 23, 2024, a week after this court opened the case to investigate him based on a complaint filed by Alberto González Amador, boyfriend of Isabel Díaz Ayuso (PP), president of the Community of Madrid. The armed institute has sent this new analysis, which EL PAÍS has access to, at the request of the investigating judge Ángel Hurtado, after the agents delivered another report in December about the phone of the highest representative of the public ministry, in which they indicated that they had not found any messages sent or received on his device between March 8 and 14, 2024. The Supreme Court is investigating García Ortiz and the chief provincial prosecutor of Madrid, Pilar Rodríguez, for the leakage of an email sent by González Amador’s defense to the public ministry on February 2, where it was admitted that Ayuso’s partner had committed tax fraud and proposed reaching an agreement to avoid a prison sentence. The content of this email (as well as a copy of it) was published in several media outlets between the evening of March 13 and the morning of the 14th, and served to debunk a rumor that was spreading by the regional president’s team —with her chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, at the helm—. The Popular Party spread the lie that it was the Prosecutor’s Office that had offered the agreement, but then withdrew it due to “orders from above”, as if it were a form of political blackmail to wear down the PP leader.
On October 16, the Supreme Court communicated the opening of the case against the Attorney General for disclosure of secrets. On October 30, the Guardia Civil carried out a search of his office, and seized his phone. However, after analyzing its contents, the agents reported that they had not found any messages sent or received between March 8 and 14, 2024 —the period that Judge Hurtado ordered to investigate—; even though, when examining the mobile phone of the prosecutor Pilar Rodríguez, they found messages that García Ortiz had sent her on those dates. As a result, the magistrate urged the armed institute to gather more information on that matter. And, according to the new report from the UCO, García Ortiz changed his mobile phone on October 23. As reported by EL PAÍS on December 19, when the report on the absence of messages on García Ortiz’s phone was known, sources from the investigation already attributed this circumstance to the fact that the Attorney General had changed devices before the judge ordered the search of his office. According to sources close to the Prosecutor’s Office, García Ortiz’s previous phone was formatted in accordance with an instruction on data protection issued in 2019 and the guide distributed by the data protection delegate of the Prosecutor’s Office in 2022. This document urges the “formatting of computer equipment once they are returned by the user” and to “not indefinitely store documents on digital media or in email accounts” and to “delete them once they are no longer needed, ensuring that they are not left in the trash”.
The investigation into García Ortiz and Rodríguez stems from the leaking of confidential information related to a case involving tax fraud by Ayuso’s partner and an alleged attempted cover-up by influential figures. The fact that García Ortiz changed his phone shortly after the investigation began has raised suspicion and scrutiny from various quarters, leading to questions about the integrity of the legal process and the handling of sensitive information within the public ministry. The involvement of high-ranking officials in such a scandal has also sparked concerns about potential political interference in legal proceedings and the implications for the credibility of the justice system. With further developments in the case expected to unfold, it remains to be seen how the Supreme Court and other relevant authorities will address the issues raised by this ongoing investigation and ensure accountability for those involved in the alleged misconduct. As the legal and ethical implications of this case continue to unfold, the public is closely following the developments and awaiting further details on the outcomes of the investigation and any potential actions taken against those found to have acted inappropriately.
